SUNSET BOULEVARD's Glenn Close Among Honorees for Theatre Forward's Chairman's Awards Gala

Theatre Forward and Chairman James S. Turley will lead a celebration to support American theatre at the annual Chairman's Awards Gala on Monday, April 3rd, at The Pierre New York (2 East 61st Street at Fifth Avenue). The Chairman's Awards Gala supports the work of Theatre Forward, which is dedicated to advancing American theatres and its communities through its Educating Through Theatre and Advancing Strong Theatre initiatives.

Emmy and Tony Award winner and six-time Academy Award nominee Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs), will be honored this spring with the Theatre Artist Award. Roe Green, visionary arts philanthropist, will receive the Theatre Forward Leadership Award. Center Theatre Group will receive the Achievement in Theatre Award on behalf of their 50th anniversary. Additional elements are still in formation.

PAMELA FARR and BUFORD ALEXANDER will serve as Gala Co-Chairs.

The Gala will include cocktails, dinner, and performances, as well as a live and silent auction. Auction proceeds will benefit the creation of theatrical works and theatre education programs across the country serving 500,000 students.

The Patron and Co-Chair Tables are priced at $25,000. Benefactor Tables are priced at $15,000 and Sponsor Tables are priced at $10,000. Ticket pricing is as follows: $2,500 (Patron Ticket), $1500 (Benefactor Ticket) $1,000 (Individual Ticket). Journal ads and Sponsorships are also available. For ticket information, contact Emily Miller at (212) 750-6895 or events@theatreforward.org

ABOUT THE HONOREES:

Glenn Close made her theatre, and Broadway, debut in Harold Prince's revival of Love for Love. Her theater credits include The Crucifer of Blood, The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs (Obie Award), Barnum(Tony nomination) and Tony Awards for her performances in The Real Thing and Death and the Maiden, both directed by Mike Nichols. In London, she reteamed with the director of the original Sunset Boulevard, Trevor Nunn, in his Royal National Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. She returned to Broadway for the 2014 revival production of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance.

Close reprised her Tony Award-winning role in Sunset Boulevard in a new production at the London Coliseum earlier this year to great acclaim. The production, starring Close, will be transferring to Broadway in February, for an exclusive limited engagement.

A six-time Academy Award nominee, Close completed filming on Julian Fellow's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Crooked House and will next star in the title role in a film adaptation of Meg Wolitzer's bestselling novel, The Wife. Other films in which she has starred and that are due for release are What Happened to Monday, The Girl With All the Gifts, Wilde Wedding and the comedy Bastards. Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill's The World According to Garp, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction and Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons.

Close received her sixth Academy Award nomination in 2012, along with Golden Globe and SAG nominations, for Albert Nobbs. She wrote the screenplay with John Banville. Close was also a producer on the film and composed the lyrics for the Golden Globe and World Soundtrack-nominated song, "Lay Your Head Down."

Her film credits include Jagged Edge; Reversal of Fortune; Hamlet; Meeting Venus; The Paper; 101 Dalmatians; 102 Dalmatians; Air Force One; Cookie's Fortune The Safety of Objects; Le Divorce; Heights; Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her and Nine Lives; Evening; Low Down; 5 to 7; Anesthesia; The Great Gilly Hopkins and Guardians of the Galaxy.

In 2012, Close headlined the fifth and final season of the critically-acclaimed original legal thriller, Damages. For her riveting portrayal of high-stakes litigator 'Patty Hewes', Close won two consecutive Emmys as "Best Actress in a Drama Series" and two subsequent Emmy nominations, along with a Golden Globe Award 2010 and three SAG Award nominations.

Close's twelve Golden Globe nominations include a Best Actress win for Andrei Konchalovsky's adaptation of The Lion in Winter (which also earned her a SAG Award). Among the television projects that have brought her twelve Emmy nominations, is an Emmy Award for her performance as Margarethe Cammermeyer in Serving in Silence: the Margarethe Cammermeyer Story (for which she also received a Peabody Award as executive producer).

Other television credits include The Shield, The Elephant Man; Something About Amelia; Stones for Ibarra, The Ballad of Lucy Whipple and In the Gloaming, for which she won a CableACE Award. She executive produced and starred in Richard Pearce's musical remake of South Pacific for ABC TV. She also executive produced and starred opposite Christopher Walken in the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy for the HallMark Hall of Fame.

In 2009, Glenn Close co-founded Bring Change 2 Mind, a charity dedicated to confronting, head-on, the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness. The idea for the organization came about following Close's first-hand observation of battles with mental illness within her family who are actively involved in spreading the mission through widely distributed Public Education Materials and programs. For more information please visit, Bringchange2mind.org.

Close actively supports Puppies Behind Bars and their program Dog Tags: Service Dogs for Those Who've Served Us. Close is a Founding Member of the Panthera Conservation Advisory Committee. and trustee emeritus of The Sundance Institute.

Roe Green is an arts patron, community activist and chief executive officer of the Roe Green Foundation. With a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Communications from the University of Colorado and a Master's degree in Theatre from Kent State University, her experience in stage and business management includes Cain Park, Cleveland Opera and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Today, she is President Emeritus of CAVORT, Inc., the Conference About Volunteers of Regional Theatres; serves on the Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance Advisory Board; the Foundation Board of Kent State University; the Board of Porthouse Theatre; the Board of Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, Florida; and the Board of Cleveland Play House. She is responsible for the Roe Green Visiting Director Series for the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State and the University of Colorado. Ms. Green has received numerous awards for her support of the arts and new play development including the State of Ohio Governor's Award for Arts Patron (2009); the Dramatist Guild's Patron of the Arts Award (2013); and the Muse Award from the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County (2014). In 2013, she received the CPH Centennial Star Award that recognizes select individuals who have made special and important contributions to CPH's rich legacy of artistic and educational programming. She is the first recipient of the CPH Super Nova Award (2015) in recognition of her leadership and generosity which has been instrumental in elevating CPH's presentation of new works through the New Ground Theatre Festival. 2016 marks the fifth year of the Roe Green Award at CPH, which recognizes a playwright and the development of a new work.

Center Theatre Group

Center Theatre Group, one of the nation's preeminent arts and cultural organizations, is Los Angeles' leading nonprofit theatre company, programming seasons at the 736-seat Mark Taper Forum and 1600 to 2000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center in Downtown Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to presenting and producing the broadest range of theatrical entertainment in the country, Center Theatre Group is one of the nation's leading producers of ambitious new works through commissions and world premiere productions and a leader in interactive community engagement and education programs that reach across generations, demographics and circumstance to serve Los Angeles. Center Theatre Group is led by Artistic Director Michael Ritchie, Managing Director Stephen D. Rountree, and Producing Director Douglas C. Baker.

Theatre Forward is devoted to advancing the American theatre and its communities by providing funding and other resources to the country's leading nonprofit theatres. Through this network of funders and regional theatres, Theatre Forward aims to increase access and opportunity for all to experience theatre that builds community and sets the stage for individual achievement by advancing strong theatre and educating through theatre. Theatre Forward is an association of institutional nonprofit theatres located in 19 cities across the country.

Theatre Forward, formerly National Corporate Theatre Fund, was created in 1977 by our 10 founding member theatres. Today, Theatre Forward theatres include The Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, ALLIANCE THEATRE, American Conservatory Theater, American Repertory Theater, Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, Cleveland Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Goodman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Long Warf Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Old Globe, Seattle Repertory Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company, and Walnut Street Theatre.

For more information, visit theatreforward.org.